Taeyong’s comfy darkness was disturbed for the second time that night, as he heard the soft beginning of his son’s cries, his heavy eyes fighting to not get lured away to sleep as his heartbeat started to accelerate at the sound of his son’s distress. He felt a soft movement and a light dip of the bed, as a weight left their warm blankets, and Taeyong stayed still, eyes still closed yet awake as he heard the soft hushes that filled the room of a familiar voice that sounded still half asleep at the 4 am in the morning.

“Hey, what’s wrong bud?” Ten tried to ask calmly, like he had observed Taeyong do as apparently babies could sense the distress of adults. He softly supported his son’s head and back, checking his hands were at the right place twice before lifting him up from the cradle.

Taeyong stayed still, secretly happy at Ten’s action, as his companion always seemed hesitant at taking care of their son; Don’t get him wrong, Ten could stay hours and hours staring at their treasure’s sleeping face, more then happy to take him into his arms or giving him his bottle when he was not fussy and he had already made an arrangement with his dance studio to have a free-day on Mark’s first doctor’s appointment which would be in 2 days (which was the 5th day that their little son had left the hospital).

 But somehow, whenever little Mark started to cry, Ten’s eyes would widen in complete panic and distress (-which Taeyong admitted was kinda cute) before looking for Taeyong to take over, not touching or trying to comfort their crying son at all as if petrified to do so.

Mark’s cries were getting louder, and Taeyong peeped one eye discretely open, ready to intervene at any moment as eventhough he was happy he couldn’t bear to let their son suffer, weak for his cries. Ten’s hush increased in volume, his arms bringing Mark closer to his chest with caution as if the indant was made of glass, their son’s little head resting on his dad’s shoulder, as Ten started to lightly rock him, going softly back and forth from the end of their bedroom till the window.

“Shhhh. Mark-yah, you will wake up your daddy. Daddy is very tired, always waking up and taking care of you.” Ten’s soft whispers made Taeyong’s heart swell with love, and he couldn’t help but find his newly gained husband extremely lovable.

Although it was true that Taeyong had always woken up, ready to take care of his beloved precious son at the slightest cry, it was because he was the one staying at home too while Ten worked at the studio from early in the morning till late evening as he had taken an extra shift now that there was a baby to feed.

They didn’t’ rely on any of Ten’s royal money, as his husband feared his parents could use it as an excuse to bring Mark to the palace when he grew up, so Taeyong had tried to lessen the burden of his always hard-working husband by taking care of Mark during the night.

Mark’s cry was getting weaker by the seconds ticking off, until complete silence greeted their bedroom again. Taeyong heard Ten’s soft sigh: “Thank you, Mark-yah. You are Dad and Daddy’s good son.”

Taeyong smiled softly as Ten planted a soft kiss on their son’s head, one of his hand cupping their son’s head protectively against his shoulder, while the other supported the tiny body against his chest.

“Dad loves you so much…but I don’t know if I will do a good job at this.” Ten’s rocking continued, unaware of Taeyong’s change in expression. Mark’s body shifted uncomfortably, and Ten hushed him again, rubbing his back.

“Don’t worry Mark-ya. You will be in good hands with your Daddy. And Dad too, will work hard.”

Mark was of course unaware of those words’ meanings, and he started to fuss again, making Ten’s soft expression changing towards panic: “Are you hungry?” he asked softly, his feet already leaving their bedroom silently, not bothering to close the door as he rushed towards the fridge of their kitchen.

Taeyong had found a young mother who donated her feed milk to other parents in exchange for a little bit of money, and eventough formula milk wasn’t bad, the both of them had agreed to try heating up feed milk for the time being as Mark wasn’t even a week old and they would prefer to give him something that would make him healthier and stronger for the time being.

“Shsssh, alright Dad knows, look I will heat it up.”

Taeyong who couldn’t resist but see his husband heating up their son’s bottle for the first time, had left their secure warm bed, dragging a soft blanket around his shoulder to ward off the cold, as he stayed silently at their bedroom’s door, observing the busy Ten, who seemed despite the new situationto know what he was doing.

Ten continued to hush Mark, but he seemed to understand soon, that warming up milk while supporting an infant with both arms at the same time, wasn’t a great idea.

“Give him to me till you ready his bottle.” Taeyong softly spoke to not alert his companion, turning on the soft led lamps in the kitchen, while Ten turned in surprise at his sudden voice.

“You are up?” Taeyong could see the apology on his face as he came closer, and he couldn’t help but

smile: “Thank you. For taking it over.”, he whispered softly, giving a soft peck on the cheeks before finally taking over their little treasure.

“I tried, but it looks like you still woke up.” Ten sighed, busying himself with the bottle, while Taeyong hushed Mark who at the presence of his daddy, toned down his loud cries.

“But I could stay longer in bed. And Mark immediately calmed down, but he happened to be hungry too…. you did a good job but you were just unlucky.” The soft consolation brought Ten a soft chuckle, as he checked the temperature of the bottle. “I don’t know how you do this at the same time.”

“I didn’t do so in the very first times. I left Mark in his bed till the bottle was done. After a while you get used to do both things at the same time”

Taeyong kissed Mark’s head, eyes full of adoration before looking up with a smile: “Parenting isn’t easy. I am as helpless as you are. But its worth it. There is no manual…but as long as we both do our best, it will end up fine. So keep up your good work, Dad.”

Ten stared at his smiling husband for a moment, his eyes soft but he was soon startled by Mark’s impatient whine, giving the bottle towards Taeyong who merely gave him a challenging smile.

Ten looked unsure at their crying son but accepted him nonetheless in his arms as Taeyong pushed the infant towards him.

“Go sit. Enjoy your son-father bonding time.” Taeyong nuddged him softly by the arm towards their couch, leaving Ten be as he slowly retreated towards their bedroom, head slightly peeping from the door as he still wanted to savour this precious moment with his droopy eyes.

Ten was way too worried about consoling their son to notice his presence; his nerves calming down as soon as Mark contently drank from the bottle, cries gone and clear blue eyes sparkling contently.

Ten stared at those clear blue eyes, illuminated only by the soft light in the kitchen, before admiring every single part of his son’s face.

Mark stared back and Ten couldn’t help but give a soft smile: “Is it good? Did Dad do a good job?”

Taeyong smiled, hugging the blanket around his shoulder tighter, as he contently witnessed the soft moments of their family.

“Now and in the future too, Dad will always try to do a good job. Mark-ya, don’t cry so much otherwise Dad will be discouraged. Bear with a Dad and Daddy in the future too, alright?”

There was of course no response, but Ten was more then happy with the little fist gripping around his finger that held the bottle.

Maybe…Maybe Ten could accept being afraid of doing mistakes, as long as it was Mark.

Ten’s soft voice continued to speak, lulling their son back to sleep while Taeyong who had softly regained his bed went back to dream with the still soft smile remaining on his face.

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“My little Lion cub, don’t you wanna play?” a worried Taeyong who was crouched down to look at their nearly two years old son, who had been merely staring at the playground ever since they came to the park.

It was the very first visit at the playground for Mark, and as all other toddlers and children were happily playing together, Ten and Taeyong’s little treasure had merely clung to his parents side, watching from afar wit those sparkling doe eyes of his how everyone was laughing and having fun on the playground.

Mark shook his head, clinging to Ten’s leg as Taeyong quickly coaxed their treasure that he wasn’t obliged to play if he didn’t want to. The two parents looked at each other helplessly, both knowing that Minghyung wanted to play, but was too shy to be around other children, especially those who looked older then him.

“I told you that always keeping him home would make him shy.” Ten sighed as he couldn’t help but complain while an indignant Taeyong glared back at him: “Yah, It was way too dangerous…what if a child would have pushed him, he couldn’t even walk properly or talk! And we went to parks before!”

“Then we should have let him go to daycare!” Ten wanted to add that although they had gone outside, they had never been to places with many children, always keeping Mark safe near their side whenever going out. Ten was of course as guilty as Taeyong, always running like a mad fool at the slightest tear or redness of his son eyes, but being the outgoing person of their couple, he had been less reculant to the idea of daycare, to make his treasure socialise with other todlers.

“Why pay so much for other people to take care of my son, when I can do so for free!” Taeyong couldn't bear to leave the apple of his eye's to the care of other people. Not that other parents who did so could bear it, but Ten's talent in dance had been the biggest reason why their couple could meet the end of the month eventhough only one of them was working while they still had an extra mouth to feed.

The two of them looked at each other before sighing: it was no use doing those silly arguments they always had as little Mark looked up with those doe eyes to them.

“How about going with dad and daddy?” Taeyong tried again, this time making sure their treasure didn’t feel pressured as he lovingly his chubby cheeks, kissing the tip of his cute nose.

Mark stayed still, eyebrows knitted before shaking again his head.

Ten crouched down as well, a little sly smile on his face as he too gave it a try: “Mark-ya. Daddy wants to play there, but I am too scared to go alone…How about our Lion cub comes and protects me, ah?”

Taeyong wanted to reprimand his partner into making their son feel guilty, yet he stayed silent as he saw Mark’s knitted eyebrow disappears, his eyes looking with determination as he nodded his head shyly.

Ten grinned at him, softly whispering: “You have to save his face, a true lion can’t be showing fear ah. Besides Mark trying to be brave is so precious.”

He didn’t leave him the time to reply as he looked back at their son with a cheery expression, lifting him up unto his shoulder: “Minghyung-ah, Let’s go!”

Taeyong looked with a half amused, half incredible expression how a grown adult started to run like a child with another child on his back towards the playground, only stopping as he reached the sandbox with a giggling Mark being thrown softly (Yet it still earned him a yell of Taeyong) into it.

Taeyong sighed foundly as he watched his son’s grin, hearing his soft giggles as Ten helped him down the slide. Ten wasn’t good with other kids, but he still tried to let Mark befriend them, being the cool dad he was. And although he was always carefull, Taeyong ended up more then once reprimanding him as he was way to excited to play with their son, even ending up letting Mark fall from the swing after a not so gentle push. It ended up with Mark teary-eyed expression, holding back his tears as Ten and Taeyong kept fusing over him, blowing softly on his scrapped knees, and kissing  h